Evening clouds gathered for the lonely funeral procession. The first cold, depressed droplet fell, but the young girl’s red eyes remained glued to the burnt structure. It hit the ground with a sullen silence, slowly escalating into a downpour before she even knew it. The scent of rain was dark and heady yet the girl kneeled there, still as a boulder, under the merciless rainstorm. On top of the ashes and charred wood, stood a grey rock. Carved in it were the words R-I-L-E-Y. A slash of thunder ripped through the rain. Her whole body was drowned in bone-chilling water. She sniffed and a salty tear rolled down her cheek like a decaying petal.

“I miss you Riley,” she whispered softly, and another clash of thunder responded coldly. The ground was substantially muddier now, and a thick paste of soil began to crawl up her boots. What was a 19-year-old girl in the middle of nowhere, without friends or family, supposed to do? She felt the somber cold of the stone on her hand, and suddenly she was brought back to that night.

The metal surface of the gardening trowel was pressed against her palm as she gripped it in her hands. The crisp night air was raw and naked, burning her lungs and rushing to her head, but the moonlight cocooned her tenderly. Standing in her small garden behind the large, abandoned shack that had become her home, the girl was deliriously happy. “Oh Riley!” She giggled, listening to the noise spill out of her like daylight, full of mirth and warmth. For the first time in a long time, the girl felt that she could leave behind the neglect of her family. That squalid house, her feeble mother, her abusive father—it was all miles away. “Riley?” “Riley, are you there?” she called out.

The girl gripped the stone unsteadily, and her eyes narrowed in pain. Why had she kept the kerosene heater so close to the wall? Had she left it on? Left it off? Doubt coursed through her body. Questions ricocheted around her mind. She clenched her teeth and shook her head, hurling away the makeshift tombstone. Before the girl even realized what she was doing, she began clawing at the ashy earth, her knees sinking into the mud. Had she left it on? Left it off?

There was no response from Riley. She called again. Silence. Perhaps Riley was just napping? She laid down the trowel and removed the worn-out gloves. Then she saw it. The deathly haze floated through the night. It twisted and turned in the air. Her nose filled with deep, heart-aching smoke. The first peak of red swirled on the roof. It spread across rapidly, and covered the top. Without thinking twice she dashed towards the door. “ Riley!” she screamed, but her weak voice was drowned out by the wall of gray.      

The girl kept clawing and clawing at the muddy ground, the brown paste sticking to her nails. Her scrawny hands were caked with mud and splintered beyond recognition. Each time she plunged her hands into soil, the edges collapsed back in, yielding to the relentless, bitter rain. The earth consumed her skin, and her knees sank into the depths of the marshy mystery. The charred remains of the shack were still scattered across the ground, surrounding the girl with blackened wood and a vicious memory. The day before the fire had been practically perfect. She and Riley had watched the blazing sunset on the distant horizon, nestled against each other under a coat. Riley’s gentle barks echoed throughout the sky. A feeling of uncontrollable guilt surged through the girl—not the shallow kind that pulls at the heart, but the rare breed that burns like fire through the body.

The girl crawled out of the burning structure, smoke and tears spilling from her eyes. The flames had consumed the shack, rising so high that its embers seemed to reach up to the heavens. They were incandescent. She yearned to sprint in and rescue Riley, but she could not seem to will herself to enter the shack again. The roar of ash and dust drowned out Riley’s howls, and a deep coldness filled the girl’s heart. It howled through the sky and rattled in her ear. Noiselessly, she screamed.

The girl could no longer ignore the reds and oranges rising above her eyes. The rain pounded her skin like knives. She was being burned. Her blue eyes darted around, but wherever she looked, all the girl could see was fire cascading down and rain rising up. Embers scattered above her, lightning ripped the seams of the wind, the fabric of the sky caught on fire. The girl felt faint with all the heat surrounding her. She gasped for air. Wild echoed through the fire. The girl curled into a fetal ball on the soil, closing her eyes. Her breath shortened. The storm of reds and blues continued for hours on, but the storm in her mind would last an eternity.